New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Ole Official Website) Ole has signed a worldwide administration deal with Canadian country star/songwriter Johnny Reid, a three-time recipient of the Canadian Country
Music Association's (CCMA) Male Artist of the Year award (2008, 2009, 2011) and winner, for the past four consecutive years, of the CCMA's Top-Selling Canadian Album award.
"Fire It Up," the first single and the title-track from Reid's upcoming self-produced album (March 13), which is now holding down the number 16 position on the Billboard Canadian Country Airplay chart, was co-written with fellow ole songwriters, Alan Frew and Marty Dodson.
"ole is proud that an artist/songwriter of Johnny's stature has chosen us as his new home," says ole CEO Robert Ott. "We look forward to supporting Johnny as he continues to add to his impressive list of successes."
Johnny Reid comments, "It's no secret that ole is one of the most successful publishing companies in the world and I'm very excited to be part of it. I look forward to a successful and lucrative partnership with Robert and his entire team."
Other notable copyrights under the deal include "Out of the Blue," "A Woman Like You," "Dance With Me," "Old Flame," "Today I'm Gonna Try and Change the World" and "Let's Go Higher" from his platinum/multi-platinum albums Kicking Stones, Dance With Me and A Place Called Love.
"Fire It Up" was released on January 10 to Canadian radio and iTunes and lived up to its incendiary title, debuting at number 36 on the Country chart as it became the number one most added song at Country radio. It went straight to number 65 on the Top 200 iTunes chart and, the week of January 18, was the top-selling single on the Top Country Chart.
Fire It Up is the follow-up album to Reid's triple platinum, Juno Award-winning opus A Place Called Love, which in 2010 debuted at number one and spent four weeks at the top of the SoundScan Top 200 Album chart.
While having his initial success as a recording artist play out through the late '90s and early millennium, Reid came to prominence as a songwriter when hit country group
Emerson Drive took his song "You Still Own Me" into the upper-echelon of the Billboard Hot Country Songs chart in the U.S. in 2007. Last year, Reid introduced himself to that U.S. audience with his PBS special,
Johnny Reid Live:
Heart and Soul.
On January 9, Reid participated in a livestream web chat with his worldwide fan-base - known as the Tartan Army - from ole's offices in Nashville following which the new single was streamed live prior to its official release. Reid's 28-date, cross-Canada Fire It Up (Let Love Live Again) 2012 tour, with opening artist Carolyn Dawn Johnson, kicks off on April 10 at the Save On Foods Memorial Centre in Victoria, B.C. The full list of tour dates is available at www.johnnyreid.com.
